WELL. Turns out I'm going to be running a supers game, spanning multiverses (and therefore game systems), using Marvel Superheroes (also known as FASERIP), Marvel Heroic Roleplaying (also known as "Cortex but now it's out of print so I could just as easily use Cortex Prime and MAYBE I WILL, JANICE), Claim the Sky, and Wearing the Cape. Of those four, Wearing the Cape is the only one I haven't made a character for, so here we go!
The Game: Wearing the Cape
The Publisher: Wearing the Cape Productions
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this, but I'm pretty conversant with Fate
Books Required: Just the one
There are a few supers games using the Fate system, including Venture City, which I found a little sparse. This is the one I like best of the ones I've read. The writing is readable and the interstitial fiction is fun, clearly written by someone who knows how to write fiction and knows the four-color genre.
In the Cape-verse, there was this Event some time ago. Everyone in the world blacked out for three seconds, all electronics went off for a few seconds, and a lot of people died because, well, vehicles stopped or fell from the sky, people fell over in bad places, etc. (One thing I appreciate about this game is that it pays attention to, if not the pure horrific realism of this situation, then the verisimilitude of it - it's the inciting incident for the world, so it's treated with some gravity.) Anyway, during this Event, people also developed superpowers in what's become known as "breakthroughs." Some people became heroes, some became villains, some are more supernatural being than superhero, but there's a lot of room to move.
I actually had an idea for a character when I was reading through the book, or at least a character backstory (didn't get as far as the actual powers or anything). London got hit pretty badly in the Event for a few reasons, and immediately post-Event any breakthroughs got sent to "Camp Acorn" for detention, assessment, and "training" in how to use their powers. It was pretty totalitarian for a minute, but it kind of evened out afterwards (the setting isn't a Days of Future Past kind of dystopia; people do get sent to Camp Acorn but it really is for assessment and training, and they aren't drafted into service thereafter, though I suspect the recruiters go pretty hard). I want to play a bloke who went to Camp Acorn kinda close to the beginning of all of this and had a bad time of it, and when he got out he beat feet for the USA, having heard that capes could leverage their powers more easily there. Let's call him Soren Simons (you know my feelings on superheroes and their alliterative names).
So! Starting the actual chargen process, as is typical for Fate games, I'm doing Aspects. The High Concept Aspect in Wearing the Cape is replaced by a Power Aspect and a Hero Aspect. The Power Aspect pretty fixed - it tells me the power level (A, B, C, or D) and the "type" of hero we're talking about, which, in turn, gives me permissions later to buy certain stunts. These types exist in-universe; "Atlas-types" are named after Atlas, and they're basically Superman - flight, super strength, invulnerability, heightened senses. This might seem overly narrow, but it's actually dirt simple to make up a new type if you want to (and some of the types are pretty flexible anyway).
The Hero Aspect, meanwhile, focuses more on the "why" of being a superhero, so I think that's where I'll start for Soren. I think his Hero Aspect is Decent Enough Bloke. It's not that Soren has especially high-minded ideals, but he's a good guy, and if he can help he will. (Now, he'd very much like to be able to get paid into the bargain, but he's not the kinda of bastard that's going to check someone's insurance before helping them - he's not American, after all.)
Trouble Aspect is pretty standard, and I think I want to tie it back to his time at Camp Acorn. Actually, yeah, let's say he was "Trained" At Camp Acorn, the implication being they might have done something more than just train him, whether or not he can remember it (shit, am I making Bucky?).
OK, better figure out my Power Aspect. I was initially thinking plant control, but I did a supers character like that some time ago (honestly it's getting a little hard not to repeat myself; I think this makes like 55 supers characters?). Well, let's go with terrakinesis instead. Soren can control earth and rock, which makes him a fucking magnet for collateral damage (for which this game has a pretty robust subsystem).
I don't have an inkling about power level, but let's say he's B-Class - not top of the heap, but still pretty impressive. That makes his Power Aspect B Class Kinetic-Type.
And now we get two Background Aspects, and these can be basically anything - ideals, quotes, talents, whatevs. Aspects, y'know. Soren is a Northern England Ex-Pat, and I think that's a pretty relevant bit of his character, so I'll make that an Aspect. I think I'll save the last one until I do some of his other stuff; I don't have a good idea and while I could make something up, I'd rather wait until I firm up his Attributes and Skills and so on.
Speaking of that, next up we do Character Ratings (which include Attributes and Skills; already we can see this game is a little more granular than Fate usually gets). I get:
But that's got to last me through six Attributes, 13 Skills, and three Resources. Let's look at my Power stuff and see if I've minimums I have to observe. Not really, though Willpower should be high. I'll put my Superb there. Where should the Greats go? I feel like I want Soren to be kinda stacked, so I'll put one of the Greats into the Physique Attribute and one into Presence (he's friendly but can be commanding when he needs to).
I'll put the Goods into Rapport, Athleticism, and Provoke, the Fairs into Alertness, Discernment, Fight, and Investigate, and the Averages into Academics, Aid, Engineering, Stealth, and Contacts. Everything else gets Mediocre.
As a B Class, I get 12 Campaign Starting Fate Points (I use these to buy up Power stunts, anything I don't spend becomes Refresh). As a Kinetic-type, I can take Projection stunts as well as the few listed under Kinetic, and there are definitely a few I want.
I want Area Attack (I can hit everyone in an area; seems appropriate for a guy who can make earthquakes). Likewise, I want Hard Hitting; when I succeed with style on a Kinetic Attack, I can reduce my shifts by 1 and gain a Situation Aspect with a free Invoke (this would let me do stuff like do less damage with an attack but give the area something like Unstable Foundation or Jagged Rocks or something). I want to give him Great Control and bump Willpower up; that costs 2 points per +1 bump, so let's put Willpower up to +8, how about (that costs me 6 points, so I've spent 8 of my 12).
And then I think I want Strong Walls; I get a +2 to Create an Advantage or Defend with walls or barriers. That leaves me 3 points left for Refresh, and I wouldn't want to go lower than that.
Still got that last Aspect to consider. I kind of want something related to a terrakinetic's propensity for causing collateral damage, so I'll say that Soren tries to have a light touch with his powers. Restraint is Key makes for a good Aspect, I think.
Stress and Consequences! I get one- and two-Stress boxes in physical and mental automatically. Since my Physique is Great, I get 3- and 4-Stress in physical, and since my Willpower is Legendary, I get those plus an extra Mild and Moderate Mental Consequence, too.
Right, that's all the numbersy stuff. What about the rest?
Soren moved to the US to the great city of Wherever This Game is Set. Let's assume it's somewhere prone to earthquakes, actually, and that a big one hit a few months after he moved there. Soren wasn't able to stop it - he was too afraid of making it worse - but he was able to shift the rubble to help rescue people and prevent further catastrophe. Somewhere along the way people started calling him "Rumble," and he likes it (partially because British slang gives it a different meaning for him). He's not sold on the idea of being a superhero, and he doesn't have a uniform yet - they're expensive! - he just wears his Camp Acorn training jumpsuit with the logos painted over. He also hasn't really bothered with concealing his identity, because he figures the powers-that-be know all about him anyway.
Rumble is definitely the sort of superhero who wouldn't go out of his way to get into hero-ing, but would get swept up and before you know it his programing kicks in and he's toppling buildings or something. He's also the kind of hero who would really strive to keep himself under control, so when the point in the movie that he gets to let loose arrives there would be a real "oh, shit" kind of moment, and I dig that. Secret Invasion sucked, but I can see Kingsley Ben-Adair playing Rumble.
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